in favour of By no means In 1730 he determined to abdicate Charles Emanuel, his only surviving son. an able man, Charles had hitherto been kept at a distance by his father, who frequently avowed his dislike of him. His abdica tion. A little more than a year after his father's abdication, the new King of Sardinia held a meeting of his council, at which it was decided that the old king should be placed under arrest. He was very harshly treated, soldiers being sent in the night-time, who tore him from his wife and hurried him away to prison. In a little more than a year again, he died in confinement. It was said that he had shown a desire to regain the crown which he had surrendered, but he had no force at his disposal, and there is no evidence that the charge was true. He really fell a victim to the ambition of a minister who wished to establish a greater influence over the young king. Philip V. in Spain. His abdica tion. In Spain a singular act of abdication took place. Philip, who remained king as the result of the War of Succession, abdicated in 1724 in favour of his son, and retired to a monastery, but upon his son's death in the next year resumed power, though professing that it was against his will. It remains to give an account of the other and unsuccessful claimant of the Spanish crown, whom we have known as Archduke Charles, and after the death of his brother, Emperor. He never could be induced quite to give up his claim on Spain, and the result was that he was never on good terms with that country. But his later history is chiefly famous on account of the war that ensued upon his death. He had no son that lived beyond infancy, but he had a daughter, the beautiful and famous Maria Theresa. On this account he prepared a document called the Pragmatic The Em peror Sanction (a name given to certain very important State documents), by which he decreed that, failing male issue, his daughter was to succeed to his hereditary dominions. To securing promises of adhesion to this Pragmatic Sanction, Charles seems to have devoted all the energies of the last fifteen years of his life. His diplomacy seemed successful; but when he died in 1740, the promises were not kept, and a tedious war arose, England taking the part of Maria Theresa, France and Prussia supporting the Duke of Bavaria against her. CHAPTER XXI. ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL. Section I.-Population. Towns. Architecture. BEFORE we consider the social and economic condition of the people of England in the reign of Queen Anne, it would be advisable to discover how many Population. people there were. Unfortunately there is no census to guide us, as it was not until the beginning of this century that statesmen had the wisdom to require an accurate calculation on which taxation could be based. The elements for an estimate are twofold. First, we know the number of houses that paid the hearth tax, which might have been called a house tax, for it was a certain sum from every house; and we can multiply that by what is known to be the average number of inmates of a house, viz. five. Secondly, there was a register of deaths, and a calculation can be based upon the average rate of mortality. This information is not as precise as a census, and the calculations make the population of England and Wales vary between five and seven millions. It is now about twenty-four millions. He was a wise man who wrote It is not growing like a tree In bulk, doth make man better be; and a country is not to be considered as necessarily in a better condition because its population has increased; on the contrary, its condition is worse, unless the growth has been proportionate in other respects. Country rather than town. Of the whole population of England and Wales onetenth was at that time included within London, but with that exception the country had a very much larger share than the towns. Bristol, the next town in population, was only one-seventeenth of London, and many towns which were considered of importance had populations which would now be thought very small. During the period from Queen Anne's time to our own the growth of manufactures has been continually drawing the people from the country into towns. If a line be drawn from the mouth of the Severn to the junction of Ouse and Trent, where the river Humber commences, one might say that, roughly speaking, it would now divide the manufacturing from the agricultural parts of the country, that with the exception of London the great towns lie to the north and west of the line, and that the preponderance of political power rests with them. With equal confidence one might assert that in Queen Anne's time this line separated the important from the unimportant parts of England, all that lay to the north and west being comparatively unimportant. The facilities of locomotion which have helped the growth of manufactures, brought about, first, by the improvement in roads, then in coaches and waggons, lastly in railways, have also conspired to send the country Important towns. people into the towns, have emptied the small into the larger towns, have in favour of London destroyed the social prestige of country capitals, and of towns which were social centres of large districts. The following may be regarded as a list of the chief English towns, after London, in the order of their importance, during Queen Anne's reign :-Bristol, the chief sea-port; Norwich, the largest manufacturing city ; York, the capital of the northern counties; Exeter, the capital of the western district; Shrewsbury, of the counties along the Welsh border, and well situated for intercourse with Wales; Worcester, in which the porcelain manufacture was beginning to rise. To these would have to be added Derby, Nottingham, Canterbury. London. The population of London was then about 700,000, that is, one-tenth of that of England and Wales. Modern London, with all its suburbs, in the widest circuit that is called London, that is to say, the postal districts, covers a much larger area, and contains about 4,000,000 inhabitants. This makes it considerably more than one-tenth of the United Kingdom, and one-sixth of England and Wales, so that if the growth has been remarkable elsewhere, it has been portentous in London. The earlier growth had been noticed, and had caused concern to the Government. In the reign of Elizabeth, and under the Stuart kings, building had been prohibited. But it was found impossible to stop the growth of London; it would have been as practicable to stop a tree from putting out its branches and its leaves. A great calamity befell London in the reign of Charles II. It was burnt down; but far from checking the growth, this only made room for a fresh start. Here was an opportunity to built the city anew on a systematic plan, and the Government of the day commissioned the greatest living architect, Sir Christopher Wren, to draw up such a plan for the city. This can still be seen, with his own Cathedral of St. Paul's standing in a free space in the centre, broad wide streets leading from it, spacious squares at due intervals, wide and convenient quays along the banks of the Thames; but, building in accordance with the plans not being strictly enforced, the opportunity was lost. London was built hastily after the fire, and many conveniences which are now thought necessary, and which might have been supplied had a little more time been taken, were neglected. Not only London life. were the streets narrow and irregular, but there was no arrangements for sewers, and there were no gutters to the streets. The police service also was very bad; 'the watch' was wholly insufficient in numbers, and was composed chiefly of old men. The streets were badly lighted of a night, and it was quite easy for anyone bent on mischief to overpower the watch. Of course thieves and robbers availed themselves of the power; but others also, who should have known better, took occasion not to rob but to riot. Young men of birth and fashion used to form themselves into clubs, banded together for the sole purpose of creating disturbances. The most fashionable of these, the Mohawks, were a terror to all peaceloving citizens, their name being taken from the wild tribe of North American Indians. An ancient writer mentions it as a sign of progress in civilisation when men cease to wear swords. This stage had not been reached in Queen Anne's reign, when the young bucks and dandies of society were always ready to draw their rapiers, and the honest citizens had to arm themselves with bludgeons. The London of Queen Anne's day consisted of two parts, then more distinct than now, the City and Westminster. The space between them was not built over. |